Stringer-supporting bracket for a concrete floor slab form structure



y 0, 1969 w. o. WILLIAMS w 3,

STRINGER-SUPPORTING BRACKET FOR A CONCRETE FLOOR SLAB FORM STRUCTURE Flled June a 1967 of 2 Sheet R. m E V m S M M L WALTER D. BY

ATT'Y May 20, 1969 w. 0. WILLIAMS 3,445,084

' STRINGER'SUPPORTING BRACKET FOR A CONCRETE FLOOR SLAB FORM STRUCTURE Filed June 8, 1967 Sheet of 2 FIG. 3

INVENTOR.

WALTER D. WLLIAMS waw=w ATT'Y United States Patent 3,445,084 STRINGER-SUPPORTIN G BRACKET FOR A CON- CRETE FLOOR SLAB FGRM STRUCTURE Walter D. Williams, River Forest, 111., assignor to Symons Mfg. Company, Des Plaines, 11]., a corporation of Delaware Filed June 8, 1967, Ser. No. 644,532 Int. Cl. E04g 11/50, 11/48 U.S. Cl. 249-192 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates generally to a supporting bracket which is designed specifically for connecting one end of a horizontal panel-supporting stringer to a medial side region of another horizontal panel-supporting stringer in a concrete floor slab form. The invention is specifically designed for use in connection with the erection of a concrete building by way of a concrete form structure like that of United States Patent No. 3,130,470, granted on Apr. 28, 1964 and entitled Concrete Wall Form Installation, the panel-supporting stringers of such concrete form structure being specifically of the type that is illustrated and described in United States Patent No. 3,052,- 008, granted on Sept. 4, 1962 and entitled Panel-Supporting Stringer Assembly for a Concrete Floor Slab. The concrete form structure of the first mentioned patent and the panel-supporting stringer of the second mentioned patent are both predicated upon the use of concrete form panels which are commonly known as Steel-Ply panels and are manufactured and sold by Symons Mfg. Company of Des Plaines, 111.

A Steel-Ply concrete form panel consists essentially of a shallow tray-like structure in the form of a fiat rectangular plywood facing, the margins or edges of which are completely encased in a rectangular metallic reinforcing frame including longitudinal and transverse members. Such a panel, when used in a horizontal floor slab form installation, is adapted to be arranged in edge-toedge relationship with similar panels and in such a manner that all of the plywood facings lie in a common horizontal plane in order that wet concrete may be poured on the continuous unbroken upwardly presented slabsupporting surface that is offered by the plywood facings. Steel-Ply panels are manufactured in sizes which vary both as to length and width, the sizes, however, being standardized and in certain multiples of one foot. The panels are supported at their ends on vertically movable supporting rails which are associated with horizontally extending stringers, the latter, in turn, being supported on vertically extending shores of the adjustable height type. After the wet concrete has been poured on the upper surfaces of the plywood facings of the panels in order to produce the desired fioor slab and after the concrete has become sufficiently set as to be self supporting, the supporting rails which are associated with and form parts of the horizontal panel-supporting stringers are lowered and, thereafter, the panels are removed so that they may be immediately reused in the formation of fioor slabs at other levels in the same concrete building. By such a procedure it is not necessary to complete curing or setting of the concrete before panel-removal opera- 3,445,084 Patented May 20, 1969 tions as had heretofore been considered necessary. Such a method of building construction is commonly known as the Symons Slab-Shore system of building erection.

It frequently happens in connection with a Symons Slab-Shore system of building erection that a cantilever structure is to be formed on the outside of a rectangular form structure, the width of such cantilever structure being equal to the length of a panel of regular size, or to a multiple of a panel length. Moreover, the placement of the cantilever structure may be such that it adjoins one of the regular panel-supporting stringers of the concrete form structure and falls within the longitudinal dimension of the latter. Alternatively, the cantilever structure may be positioned to overlap adjacent panel-supporting stringers or even to overlap two or more of such stringers. In such an instance, it is necessary, in order to provide a foundation support for such a cantilever structure, to utilize two or more regular panel-supporting stringers (hereinafter referred to as cantilever stringers) and to position these stringers in supported relationship alongside certain of the regular form stringers and cause them to extend at a right angle thereto with the outer ends of the cantilever stringers being supported by adjustable shores. The panels for the cantilever structure may then be caused to span the distance between adjacent cantilever stringers in the usual manner of panel support.

The present invention is specifically concerned with a novel supporting bracket by means of which the inner end of each cantilever stringer may be attached to and supported from the outer side of a regular form stringer at any desired longitudinal location along the last mentioned stringer. Since, in the Symons Slab-Shore system of building erection, the regular panel-supporting stringers are generally in the form of I-beams, and since the top flanges of such stringers lie in the general horizontal plane of the plywood facings of the stringers lie in the general horizontal plane of the plywood facings of the stringer-supported panels as clearly disclosed in aforementioned Patents Nos. 3,130,470 and 3,052,008, it is necessary, in designing such a stringer-to-stringer supporting bracket, that pains be taken to insure continuity of horizontal top stringer and bracket surfaces for smooth underneath or bottom surface slab formation. The problem is further complicated in that it is necessary to provide a reaction support for each cantilever stringer against both lateral and longitudinal tilting movement, as well as to avoid interference between the stationary part of each cantilever stringer and the moving parts adjacent to the regular form stringer. These considerations have been borne in mind in the production and development of the present stringer-supporting bracket and the latter, therefore, constitutes an effective adjunct to the present Symons Slab-Shore system and serves to extend the usefulness of such system.

The provision of a stringer-supporting bracket of the character briefly outlined above constitutes the principal object of the present invention. Numerous other objects and advantages of the invention, not at this time enumerated, will become readily apparent as the nature of the invention is better understood from a consideration of the following detailed description.

In the accompanying two sheets of drawings forming a part of this specification, one illustrative embodiment of the invention is shown.

In these drawings:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a cantilever form structure employing two of the stringer-supporting brackets of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of a portion of the cantilever structure of FIG. 1, the form panels being omitted and the view illustrating the manner 3 in which the present bracket serves to maintain end-toside contiguity between one of the cantilever stringers and an adjacent regular form stringer; and

FIG. 3 is an enlarged exploded perspective view of the structure that is shown in FIG. 2.

Referring now to the drawings in detail and in particular to FIG. 1, one of the longitudinally extending, horizontally disposed stringers of a concrete floor slab form structure is shown as being supported at one end by an adjustable height shore 12 and to this stringer there are attached in end-to-side relationship two horizontally disposed cantilever stringers 14 and 16 which, in turn, serve to support therebetween a rectilinear series of horizontal slab-supporting panels 18 on the upper surface of which the concrete of the cantilever form structure is adapted to be poured, it being understood that the two cantilever stringers and the panels 18 constitute said cantilever form structure. The stringers 14 and 16 likewise are supported, in part, by vertically adjustable shores 20.

It will be understood that the various stringers, shores and panels constitute elements of a concrete floor slab form structure of the type that is shown and described in aforementioned Patent No. 3,130,470 as modified by the addition of the cantilever form parts. The end-to-side connection between each of the stringers 14 and 16 and the stringer 10 is effected by means of two of the supporting brackets 22 of the present invention.

For a full understanding of the stringer-supporting bracket of the present invention a general understanding of the nature of the various stringers 10, 14 and 16 is essential. Reference may be had to aforementioned Patent No. 3,052,008 for a full understanding of the nature or design of these stringers, but for purposes of description herein, it is sufficient to state that each stringer includes a main body portion in the form of an I-beam (see FIG. 2) having a horizontal top flange 24, a horizontal bottom flange 26, and a vertical connecting web 28. Vertically shiftable supporting rails of angle piece construction extend horizontally along the opposite sides of the web 28 and are capable of being shifted between raised and lowered positions and of being secured in their raised positions by means of nut and bolt assemblies 32 which extend through holes in the vertical flanges 34 of the rails and also through arcuate slots 36 in the web 28. The horizontal flanges 38 of the rails 30 are provided with small protuberances 40 at spaced regions therealong near the outer edges thereof for panel-retaining purposes as will be described presently.

It is also deemed necessary for a full understanding of the present stringer-supporting bracket that a general understanding of the nature of the panels 18 be had. These panels are of the Steel-Ply type and are fully disclosed and described in both of the above-mentioned patents. Briefly, however, each panel is of shallow traylike design and includes a plywood facing 42 which is bounded by studding in the form of a rectangular steel frame including side members 44 and end members 46. The end regions of the panels 18 are adapted to be supported on the horizontal flanges 38 of the rails 30 and the small protuberances 40 project upwardly into the confines of the shallow tray-like panels and cooperate with the end members 46 in preventing the ends of the panels from slipping from the rails during panel installation and removal operations. It will be understood that on the side of the regular panel-supporting stringer 10 that is remote from the panels 18 of the cantilever form structure, main form panels (not shown) will extend away from said stringer 10 in a direction normal to the direction of the panels 18. It will also be understood that, in accordance with the principles of a conventional Slab-Shore system of building erection, after the entire form structure including the main floor slab-supporting panels and the cantilever slab-supporting panels 18 are in position, the upper faces of the various top flanges 24 and of the plywood facings 42 of the various panels lie in a common horizontal plane and, in combination with portions of the brackets 22, present a smooth unbroken slab-supporting surface upon which wet concrete may be poured in order to provide or form the main floor and its cantilever extension of the concrete building which is being built by way of the Slab-Shore system and the hereinbefore described cantilever form structure.

Referring now, additionally, to FIG. 3, each of the stringer-supporting brackets 22 involves in its general organization a horizontally elongated platform part 50 which is T-shaped in transverse or cross section and embodies a vertical web 52 and a horizontal stringer-supporting upper flange 54. But one bracket 22 will be described in detail and its platform part 50 is adapted transversely to underlie and to be attached to the bottom flange 26 of the regular panel-supporting stringer 10. In addition, it is adapted longitudinally to underlie and support the adjacent end of the cantilever stringer 14 or 16 as the case may be.

The platform part 50 of each bracket 22 may be suspended from the bottom flange 26 of the regular panelsupporting stringer 10 by various means, as, for example, by bolting the same to such flange or by the use of a number of C-clamps if desired. However, an extremely effective connection between the platform part 50 and the stringer 10 may be attained by the use of a separable twopart connecting device such as is designated in its entirety by the reference numeral 60, such device being of the type that is shown and described in United States Patent No. 3,144,105, granted on August 11, 1964 and entitled separable Two-Part l-Beam Connector. Reference may be had to such patent for a full understanding of this connecting device 60 and, for purposes of disclosure herein, the entire disclosure of Such patent insofar as it is consistent with the present disclosure. is hereby incorporated and made a part of this patent application by reference thereto. Having thus embodied the disclosure of United States Patent No. 3,144,105 in the present application, it is deemed sufficient for purposes of discussion herein to state that the connecting device 60 includes a pair of counterpart sections 62 and 64, which, as shown in FIG. 3, are shown as being in exploded relationship on opposite sides of the stringer 10, and when assembled upon each other in operative connecting relationship with respect to the regular panel-supporting stringer 10 and the platform part 50, fit closely together and serve to maintain said platform part 50 in an underslung position and so that it extends transversely of said stringer as clearly shown in FIG. 2. When in this nested and connecting re lationship, the section 64 presents a channel void 66 which embraces the side of the bottom flange 26 that is labelled 26a while the section 62 presents a shoulder 68 which abuts against the outer edge of the bottom flange 26 that is labelled 2612. Similarly, the section 62 of the connecting device 60 presents a channel void 70 which embraces the side of the upper flange 54 that is labelled 54a while the section 64 presents a shoulder 72 which abuts against the outer edge of the side of the upper flange 54 that is labelled 54b. A vertical bolt 74 projects upwardly through a notch 76 in the section 64 and is received in a threaded hole or socket 78 in the section 62. Similarly, a vertical bolt 80 projects downwardly through a notch 82 in the section 62 and is received in a threaded hole 84 in the section 64. When the two bolts 74 and 80 are tightened, the sections 62 and 64 are drawn together and the platform part 50 of the bracket 22 is securely clamped to the regular panel-supporting stringer 10 in the predetermined desired relationship in which the various parts are illustrated in FIG. 2.

The platform part 50 is provided with an upstanding post structure in the form of a flat strip of sheet steel which may have its lower end welded as at 92 to the upper flange 54 medially of the ends of the latter. The upper end of the post structure 90 has welded to it a horizontally disposed filler plate 94 of rectangular configuration. This filler plate assumes a coplanar relationship with respect to the top flange 24 of the regular panelsupporting stringer and abuts against the latter in edge-to-edge relationship when the bracket 22 is assembled upon or applied to said stringer 10. A vertical fiat stabilizing web 96 overlies the adjacent panel-supporting rail 30 of the stringer 10, rests on the horizontal flange 38 of said adjacent panel-supporting rail, and underlies the top flange 24 of such stringer. The outer edge 98 of said stabilizing web 98 abuts against the adjacent side of the connecting web 28 of the regular stringer 10.

The top flange 54 of the platform part 50 presents an upwardly facing platform surface 100 which is adapted to receive and support the adjacent end of the associated cantilever stringer 14 or 16 as the case may be, the stringer 16 being selected for illustration in FIG. 3. When in its supported position on the platform surface, the bottom flange 26 of the stringer 16 rests squarely upon the platform surface and is fixedly located thereon by means of two upstanding rivet-like locking protuberances 102 which project upwardly through small holes 104 which are formed in the bottom flange 26 and are located or disposed on opposite sides of the vertical web 28 by the cantilever stringer 16. In order securely to clamp the stringer 16 on the platform surface 100, a base anchor plate 106 underlies an overhanging end region of the upper flange 54 of the platform part 50 and cooperates with two clamping plates 108 which overlie the opposite side portions of the bottom flange 26 of the stringer 16. Vertical bolts 110 pass upwardly through holes (not shown) in the end portions of the anchor plate 106 and vertically aligned holes in the clamping plates 108 and cooperate with nuts 112 in drawing the latter plates toward the base anchor plate 106 thereby clamping the contiguous or overlapping flanges 26 and 54 together as clearly shown in FIG. 2. In order to restrain the stringer 16 against lateral tilting movement, the upper portion of the adjacent end edge region of the stringer web 28 projects between a pair of spaced apart retaining ears 114 on the upper end of the post structure 90. A horizontal bolt 116 passes laterally through registering holes in said upper portion of the adjacent end edge region of the web 28 and the two ears 116 and cooperates with a nut 118 in retaining the upper portion of the adjacent end region of the stringer 16 thus anchored to the post 90.

In the application of the present stringer-supporting brackets 22 to a concrete floor slab form structure for the purpose of erecting on such form structure an outrigger cantilever form structure, the number of cantilever panelsupporting stringers required will, of course, first be ascertained and, thereafter, these stringers will be attached to one or more of the main or regular floor slab form stringers 10 at preselected locations. Assuming for purposes of discussion herein that only two of the cantilever stringers such as have been shown in FIG. 1 at 14 and 16 are required, these stringers will be applied to the main or regular stringer 10 so that they extend at an angle of 90 to such stringer and then applying the two sections 62 and 64 of the two-part connecting device 60 in position in the manner previously described and as more fully described in aforementioned United States Patent No. 3,144,105. After the bolts 74 and 80 have been tightened, the platform part 50 of the bracket 22 will be securely and firmly positioned on the stringer 10 so that the filler plate 94 abuts against the top flange 24 of the stringer 10 as shown in FIG. 2, with the post structure 90 extending vertically upwardly alongside the stringer 10 and with the platform surface 100 extending outwardly in a plane slightly below the general horizontal plane of the bottom flange 26 of the stringer 10. The stabilizing web 96 will then abut against the vertical web 28 of the stringer 10. The proximate or inner end of the cantilever stringer is then set upon the platform surface 100 by resting the inner end portion of the bottom flange 26 of this stringer on such surface and causing the two rivet-like protuberances 102 to pass upwardly through the holes 104 in the bottom flange 26 of the cantilever stringer. The web 28 of said cantilever stringer is then caused to enter between the two spaced apart ears 114 on the upper end of the vertical post structure and the bolt 116 is thereafter applied to the ears and said web. The base anchor plate 106 and the two overlying clamping plates 108 are then secured in position so as to clamp the upper flange 54 of the platform part 50 to the bottom flange 26 of the cantilever stringer. Thereafter, the nut and bolt assemblies and 112 are tightened, thus completing the attachment of the cantilever stringer to the stringer 10 in its proper 90 positional relationship.

When both of the cantilever stringers 14 and 16 have been applied to the main or regular stringer 10 in the manner set forth above, the various Steel-Ply panels 18 are installed upon the parallel stringers 14 and 16 in the manner set forth in aforementioned Patent No. 3,130,- 470. Briefly, the application is made by loosening the nut and bolt assemblies 32 and allowing the panel-supporting rails 30 to assume their lowered positions. Lowering of the rails 30 affords the necessary clearance for insertion of the panel ends into the space which exists between the rails and the top flanges 25 of the two cantilever stringers 14 and 16. After the ends of the panels have been inserted into place, the panels 10 are centered between the two top flanges 24 of the cantilever stringers 14 and 16 and the rails 30 are raised to lift the panels bodily so that their plywood facings 42 move into the general horizontal plane of these top flanges, as well as that of the top flange 24 of the regular stringer 10. The nut and bolt assemblies 32 are then tightened and the cantilever floor slab form structure is complete and ready for concrete pouring operations.

It is to be noted that after assembly operations as described above have been completed, a substantially smooth unbroken planar surface is provided completely across all portions of the main or regular floor slab form structure and the cantilever floor slab form structure and concrete may be poured onto such planar surface. The horizontal filler plates 94 of the brackets 22 establish contiguity of concrete-supporting surface between the top flanges 24 of all of the stringers involved in the form structure, while the webs 96 and the ears 114 steady the post' structures 90 and the stringers 14 and 16 so that there will be no shifting or creeping of the stringers or panels under the influence of the pressure that is exerted by the weight of the poured concrete.

The invention is not to be limited to the exact arrangement of parts shown in the accompanying drawings or described in this specification as various changes in the details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. For example, whereas attachment of the platform parts 50 of the brackets 22 has been described herein as being effected by means of the special I-beam connector 60 of U. S. Patent No. 3,144,105, other forms of connectors may be employed for effecting the attachment. Therefore, only insofar as the invention is particularly pointed out in the accompanying claims is the same to be limited.

Having thus described the invention what I claim as new and desire to secured by Letters Patent is:

1. In a concrete floor slab form structure adapted for use with a floor slab form for producing a main floor slab portion, an auxiliary slab form for producing a coplanar cantilever floor slab portion including, in combination, a horizontally disposed I-beam type panel supporting stringer associated with the main floor slab portion and a second and similar horizontally disposed cantilever stringer positioned in end-to-side contiguity and at an angle of 90 with repect to the first mentioned stringer, said stringers having coplanar top and bottom flanges respectively and interconnecting web portions, and an elongated supporting bracket supporting the second mentioned stringer from the first mentioned stringer and preserving its positional relationship with respect thereto, said bracket having a flat upwardly presented surface which is coextensive with the bracket, a vertical post structure projecting upwardly from the central region of said surface and dividing the latter into a clamping surface on one side of the post and a platform surface on the other side thereof, means fixedly clamping said bracket to the first mentioned stringer so that said clamping surface underlies the bottom flange of the latter stringer with the post structure projecting upwardly alongside the first mentioned stringer and with the platform surface overhanging the outer side of the bottom flange of said first mentioned stringer, said second mentioned stringer having its bottom flange supported on said platform surface, a flat filler plate carried at the upper end of said post structure and interposed in coplanar relationship between the top flange of the first mentioned stringer and the top flange of the second mentioned stringer, and means fixedly clamping the bottom flange of the second mentioned stringer to the platform surface of the bracket, the top flanges of the first and second mentioned stringers and the filler plate presenting a substantially continuous unbroken horizontal concrete receiving surface.

2. In a concrete floor slab form structure, the combination set forth in claim 1, wherein said supporting bracket is generally of T-shape in cross section and includes an upper horizontal flange and a depending vertical Web, the transverse dimension of said upper flange being substantially equal to the transverse dimension of the bottom flange of the second mentioned stringer which rests thereon, and wherein said means for fixedly clamping the bottom flange of the second mentioned stringer to the platform surface of the bracket comprises an anchor plate beneath such bottom flange and overhanging the side of the bottom flange, a pair of clamping plates above said bottom flange, and nut and bolt assemblies extending between the clamping plates and anchor plate drawing the same toward each other and against said bottom flange.

3. In a concrete floor slab form structure, the combination set forth in claim 1 and including, additionally, a stabilizing web on said post structure adjacent to the upper end thereof and beneath said filler plate, said web bearing against the vertical web of the first mentioned stringer.

4. In a concrete floor slab form structure, the combination set forth in claim 3 and including, additionally, a pair of spaced apart ears on the post structure adjacent the upper end thereof and on the side of the post remote from the stabilizing web, said ears straddling the vertical Web of the second mentioned stringer and serving to prevent lateral tilting of the latter stringer.

5. In a concrete floor slab form structure, the combination set forth in claim 3 and including, additionally, a pair of locking protuberances projecting upwardly from said platform surface on opposite sides of the longitudinal axis of the bracket, said second mentioned stringer being provided in the bottom flange thereof with small holes through which said locking protuberances project upwardly.

6. In a concrete floor slab form structure, the combinat1on set forth in claim 5 and including additionally, a through bolt projecting through said spaced apart ears and the web of the second mentioned stringer.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,052,008 9/1962 Bowden et a1. 249-192 3,130,470 4/1964 BoWden et al. 249192 3,144,105 8/1964 Capek 287-189.35

FOREIGN PATENTS 257,655 2/ 1965 Australia.

I. SPENCER OVERHOLSER, Primary Examiner.

R. D. BALDWIN, Assistant Examiner.

U.S. Cl. X.R. 

